Sunday, March 19, 2017

Something big happened and I forgot to blog about it here. I managed to reign in the 2015 Super Street Modified Solo National Champion driving the 1993 Mazda RX-7 following in the wake of the 2014 jacket from Corsaro in his F Street Camaro. It was an adventure to get there. It was exhausting and I embarrassingly never made it back to the website to share the good news and the string of breakage and car failures leading up to the win. Major thanks goes out for the support of all the Hamfist drivers helping along the way including Dave Corsaro, Alex Kang, Steve Farkas at SJF Performance, Sandro La Rosa for lending me his cars ECU and all the tuning hardware and software, Joe Ottofaro, Heidi Ellison, Eric Simmons, Evan Schickel, Dan Stainback, Josh Lipman, Charles Sudano and others. Some of you really went above and beyond and the others were always there to keep the smiles rolling - and nothing is more important than that in this game. Thanks to the entire NNJR SCCA region and Jeff Yatsko for accommodating my annoying breakage and re-testing in the wrong heats. Thanks to IRPerformance and Speed1 for troubleshooting my ridiculously possessed ECU (and the random Puerto Rican rotary guru guy at the shop next door to IRP). Thanks to Mazda Motorsports, Hoosier Tires, Hawk Performance and OS Giken for all the contingency support over the years. Thanks to Jaxe & Co, Alfa, HGU - A New York Hotel for the sponsorships. Thanks Dave Barninger (and his team Kyle, Jordan and Chris) for helping a clueless fool create such a monstrous car over the years. Most of all thanks to my wife who held down the fort with the little man and one other in the oven while I dodged cones with a purpose in Nebraska.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

The interview filmed and edited by Carlos Foxworthy posted here captures some insight into Jake Namer's passion for motorsports with highlights from NASA Time Trials in the Hamfist Racing Mazda GT/ST/TT RX7.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

1. Dave Corsaro won the F-Street 2014 SCCA Solo National Championship in the SJF/HamfistRacing/Autox4u Camaro SS 1LE.2. Hamfist Racing expanded to build a team of the strongest, fastest and most dedicated racers in the NYC tristate area. The expansion of team Hamfist Racing has made campaigning nationally an even more enjoyable experience. We use collaborative tuning and racing efforts and share in pride and celebration of our podium finishes. We always have a great time together as a racing family on and off track and in the garage. Team drivers include, in no particular order:Dave Corsaro, Alex Kang, Joe Ottofaro, Steve Farkas, Don Slevin, Evan Schickel, Grant Winston, Rob Horvath, Heidi Ellison, Daniel Stainback, Jeff Hurst, Matt Klein, Chris Carmenini, Keith Strum, Josh Lipman, Charles Sudano, Eric Simmons, Ron Zaras, Yury Kholondyrev, Carlos Foxworthy, Randy Petchauer, GJ Dixon, Josh Ostrowsky, Chris Vandervolk, Will Emmons, James Tadad, Ben Lesnak, Joseph Wong, Josh Thal-Pruzan, Caitlin Brown, Dawn Ammirata, Sandro La Rosa, Elena La Rosa, Rich Wayne and I. 3. Did I mention "garage"? Yeah, we got that covered now. More on the Garage Mahal in future posts. 4. SJF Performance is the official racing performance alignment and corner balancing shop of all motorsports in the world. 5. Bridgestone RE71R's are also known as Hoosierstones. If you don't have them, you need them unless you're on Hoosiers, obviously. 6. Tube-chassis 7's Only Mazda GT/ST/TT RX7 is in the garage doing circuit duty in NASA TT3/2/1/U and ST3/2/1.7. Who has two thumbs and a provisional NASA competition license? THIS GUY (thumbs his chest). 8. 2015 SCCA Solo National Championships are now less than one month away and the entire team is more excited than ever. See you all in Lincoln, if not sooner. 9. Carlos Foxworthy borrowed an expensive video camera and strangely requested the Tube-chassis 7's Only Mazda GT/ST/TT RX7 and I be the subjects of his first film projects. More on that in future posts. 10. New Hamfist Racing logo was released. Designed by Dan Stainback and approved by everyone and no one at the same time.

Monday, April 29, 2013

"EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (April 25, 2013) – Nick Barbato, of Wethersfield, Conn., and Learic Cramer, of Columbia, Md., took home the big prizes at last weekend’s Tire Rack SCCA New Jersey ProSolo in the Meadowlands. Barbato earned his first career Super Challenge win, with Cramer taking home gold in the Ladies Challenge.

With the Manhattan skyline in clear view of the course, the Saturday weather made for a cold, windy qualifying day in the parking lots of MetLife Stadium. Adding to the difficultly on the Dave Newman-designed layout is that it looked deceivingly simple during the course walk, but proved to be difficult to do correctly at the brisk pace during the runs.

Barbato got the qualifying times correct, though, topping the B Stock class in his GT Academy Got It Wrong Honda S2000 by 1.166-seconds to advance to the 32-car Super Challenge bracket.

Under the slightly warmer and less windy Sunday skies, Barbato knocked off Jeff Hurst (Street Touring X-class Anze Suspension Mazda RX-8) and Mark Labbancz (Nissan 370Z) in the opening two rounds to advance to the quarterfinals.

Round three was Barbato’s second visit to a Street Touring X competitor – this time versus the top-qualifying Andrew Pallotta (Stranoparts.com Scion FR-S). Like the opening round, Barbato advanced, and found himself in the semifinals.

Opposite Barbato’s bracket, the semifinal featured Jake Namer (ANZE/Tripoint/ParkItNY/Hamfist Racing Mazda RX-7), who qualified on top of the Super Street Modified class, and Eric Campbell (SoloRacer.com/MonoBalls.com BMW330Ci), who advanced out of the Stock/Street Index 2 grouping in qualifying.

Barbato continued his hot streak to claim the overall victory. Leach bested Namer in the consolation bracket for third place.

Learic Cramer earned her spot in the Ladies bracket by advancing through the Ladies Class 2 in her Nissan 370Z as the second qualifier. Cramer then topped Holly Schwedler (stranoparts.com/Automation Tool & Die Scion FR-S) and Shelly Monfort (StranoParts.com/Shameless Iced Tea Scion FR-S) in the quarter and semifinals – both from her qualifying group.

Once in the finals, Cramer topped Olga Bogdanova (SoloRacer.com/MonoBalls.com BMW 330Ci) - the fastest overall in Ladies Class qualifications – for her first career Ladies Challenge ProSolo victory.

Ted Descovich, of Chester, N.Y., earned the top spot in the Bonus Challenge."

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Well, the Evo X was sold back in November to make way for an even more potent vehicle... a 2012 Toyota Yaris!

Okay not entirely true- the Yaris is a tad slower and it wasn't meant to replace the Evo. This five door dorkfest is my daily driver.

Being the SE version, it gets a good number of upgrades over a base Yaris including four wheel disc brakes, a quicker steering rack, and 16" alloys for starters. I also topped out at over 41mpg driving to Lincoln last year... on Dunlop Star Specs.

But can it be fun to drive? Yeah, but not without tinkering.The first modifications were Tokico HTS shocks and struts and an Ultra Racing 23mm rear bar to help restrict the rear torsion beam from twisting. Crash bolts were added to the front struts for extra negative camber.

Almost on two wheels... let's see if I can keep it on the ground this year.

Just these few simple changes helped the Yaris nip at the heels of a couple of very well-driven Minis at our local autocross... 0.5 to 1 second behind on a 60 second course.

Close, but still an eternity in autocross terms.

Clearly the Yaris' biggest flaws are large amounts of body roll coupled with an open front differential. To be fast with these cars will require maintaining momentum, increasing composure and avoid spinning the inside front tire which just wastes energy and adds seconds. To do all of this however requires modifications that will bump the Yaris to one of the newest classes in SCCA's Solo program- Street Touring FWD.

While still only a supplemental class, it has seen moderate support at the national level and a little better support at the regional level. The majority of experienced autocrossers prefer to drive vehicles that are proven winners in their respective classes. There are a few exceptions, those willing to drive cars that are considered shitboxes within the sport. I am one of those exceptions because I will race anything... but it should be fun to drive too.

The most difficult task in preparing a vehicle for double duty is keeping a streetable ride for commuting during the week while having a competitive car for the weekend.

Having run Star Specs on five different cars since 2008, I have decided to go with Dunlop's newest creation, the ZII. I am going to start the year on shaved 225/45/16 for the fronts and will be using up my old shaved Z1s in 205/50/16 out back.

Like the Z1, the ZII maintains the ability to flipped inside to outside and consequently LF to RF, LR to RR... rewarding competitors with longer tire life. Less siping on the outer treadblocks should lead to higher grip levels than the Z1.

Ever since owning a Championship White 1998 Integra Type R several years ago, I have always had a soft spot for white cars on white wheels. Can't wait to see them on the car!

The wheels are Kosei K4Rs that I had powdercoated, in size 16" x 7.5" for the fronts, 16" x 6.5" for the rear.

They weigh in at 13.6 lbs and 12.8 lbs respectively.

The idea behind the heavy stagger is that I did not need, or want, as much grip in the rear as it would be counter-productive in really getting this car turned in and exiting out as efficiently as possible.

Here is what will tie it all together, literally. Cusco's trick aluminum strut tops(right) with integrated bearing and Whiteline's front control arm bushings(left).

The OEM upper strut bearing on the Yaris uses a pathetic 'bobble' strut top design, meaning that a spongy rubber-isolated bearing is merely sitting into a cup from beneath the chassis.

Hit a bump, and the car virtually unloads itself off of the bearing since it is not in any way fastened to the car.

Dive hard into a corner? Mush-fest, camber-loss city.

The design of the Cuscos fasten the top of the strut to the vehicle's chassis. This will not only allow the springs and struts to do their job as God intended by it will also help maintain front camber a shit-ton better.

Whiteline's inner bushings for the front control arm will help maintain toe settings as well as caster/camber to an extent.

The polyurethane control arm bushings also have a side-benefit of controlling wheel hop. This is a big problem for most front-wheel-drive cars with sticky tires.

I have already started to tackle the chore of locking down the front end by installing custom delrin inserts I fabbed up for the engine and transmission mounts seen above and on the left.

The passenger side mount(not pictured) is now solid steel.

Next up on the list was probably the most surprising of all... aluminum pulleys. Upon receiving them I verified their total weight at 22.675 oz total. Pretty damn light.

The steel OEM pulleys weighed in at a shade over 68 oz, so a total savings of over 45 oz or just under 3lbs. My highly calibrated butt dyno witnessed quicker acceleration from a stop and better pull in gear at low rpms. Well worth the money and time to install.

Crankshaft, water pump and alternator pulleys from NST.

In the coming weeks, I'll be continuing to remove weight legally from all areas of the car on the cheap. I have yet to share what I've done for springs and roll control but I am pretty close to getting the suspension to where I want it to be, and while it is a little unorthodox, I feel that it is capable. Think NASCAR or dirt track hillbilly stuff.

New England Region SCCA's Rallycross program hosted their annual Stafford Springs event on January 12th and 13th.

Conditions were at their worst once again, which is exactly what any masochistic offroad enthusiast loves.

Mud, gravel, snow, ice... bring it on!

This time I was driving Morgan's 2010 Toyota Yaris, all decked out with brand new Firestone Winterforce tires purchased literally the day before the event. Weighing as light as my old EF Civic hatchback, I knew it would be a strong contender in Stock FWD- and it was.

The Yaris proved to be very competent in the rough stuff just like my old Civics and Toyotas of yore. Its short wheelbase provided effortless maneuvering through the course albeit with lots of e-brake use. Maintaining momentum was paramount as torqueless front-wheel-drive cars just don't dig out of slow corners the way all-wheel-drive cars do. I had a blast and plan on doing more rallycross events in the red Yaris.

Unfortunately I did not stay to compete on Sunday as I did not want to chance damaging her daily driver. Kudos to NER for putting on a great event with long, challenging courses. Also thanks to the Dennis family for providing a gratuitous amount of hot food Saturday for everyone at the event- a real class act!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Sports Car Chief of Mazda Motor Corporation, Nobuhiro Yamamoto, exposes details on the 2017 RX-7 rebirth. The new RX-7 will commemorate 50 years over rotary Mazda sports cars. Yamamoto expressed in an interview with The Motor Report the car will likely start out with a naturally aspirated rotary engine - perhaps a variant of the 16X developed in 2007 - and tip the scales at about 2600 lbs. Despite the lack of forced induction, the larger displacement 1.6 liter wankel would turn out approximately 300 horsepower. Yamamoto - the person responsible for both the FD3S and the 787B engines - insists the new powerplant will be more linear, a trait overlooked on his twin-sequential 13B. Additionally, Yamamoto even mentioned emissions technology advance already engineered that will ensure the compliance of 2017 RX-7. As with all of Mazda's sports cars, he says the development will focus on driver involvement. With more power and 200 lbs lighter curb weight than the last FD3S, the 2017 RX-7 is poised to be a true drivers car. We believe that if Mazda has the passion and "drive" to develop this car, it must deliver a chassis and suspension worthy of a 21st century super-car.